Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is the founder of the tea party caucus. A rising star in the Republican Party, Bachmann insisted the new caucus will not be "the mouthpiece of the tea party movement. We decided to form a tea party caucus for one very important purpose -- to listen to the concerns of the tea party. We are not taking the tea party and controlling it from Washington, D.C. I am not the head of the tea party, nor are any of these members of Congress the head of the tea party movement. The people are the head of the tea party movement in all of their form."